HUMAN & NATURE

The Indonesian government threatened to deport Hollywood actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio from the country after he made critical comments on social media about Indonesia’s palm oil cash crops. DiCaprio went on a mini screed on his Instagram over the weekend, telling his followers that Indonesia’s palm oil fields are destroying the elephant population in the Southeast Asian country. “The ...

Dramatic aerial photographs show the extent of demolition at the Jungle camp in Calais, where thousands of migrants had been living. A judge ordered many could be evicted last month, with bulldozers leaving only the area where there is a makeshift school, churches and a mosque. Hundreds of temporary homes were removed, with the authorities putting up others made from heated ...

In the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in the Arctic Circle, deep into the mountains, the global pool in seeds and plants has its own, special residence. It is designed to meet the needs of humanity, if the nightmare scenario of a global catastrophe comes into being. It is called “the Global Seed Vault of Svalbard” a.k.a. “Crypt of Revelation”. Everything ...

Early in the 2012-13 season, 18-year-old Giannis Antetokounmpo landed on the radar of NBA scouts, shrouded in mystery. He didn’t attend the combine or team workouts, so he had never been extensively measured. He had played mostly in Greece’s youth system and second-tier pro league, so no one could agree on how he’d best be used in the NBA. There ...

By Ovidiu Palcu Why I fell in love with Tangier and its simple beauty, I can’t remember. I have been visiting it since 2003 and seen it change from a dusty town to a modern city with International restaurants, beach bars and a summer influx of European tourists. I first visited the white city, as it is known because of ...

The chairs and tables made by Cucula are one-of-a kind and made by refugees from West Africa. The Berlin start-up gives them a new outlook on life – and is attracting attention on the design scene. Read more: thediplomat.gr

As scientists and engineers are figuring out how to get the huge amounts of trash out of the ocean, another problem to figure out is what to do with it all once it has been collected. Apparently, creating shoes is one thing that we can do with it. Adidas has released a prototype for a shoe woven entirely out of ...

The comet landed on by the spacecraft Philae could well be home to an abundance of alien microbial life, according to leading astronomers. Features of the comet, named 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, such as its organic-rich black crust, are most likely explained by the presence of living organisms beneath an icy surface, the scientists have said. Rosetta, the European spacecraft orbiting the comet, ...

Accidents and diseases happen; people lose limbs. Most of them are limited to a not much functional prosthesis. Some prosthesis are similar to the first prosthesis in the ancient times in Egypt, not generating almost any function. Patients always hope for better technology that will allow them to recover some of the lost functions of their limbs. Today we present ...